PART 3: Major League Baseball - St. Louis Cardinals in 2011
Injuries, it goes without saying, are an inevitable and unavoidable part of the baseball game. No matter what the precautions are, the eventuality of an injury cannot be averted. Therefore, it would not be holistically appropriate to attribute a team’s performance alone to an injury.
Nonetheless, the argument can go to the contrary as well. While the natures of injuries differ widely, it is also an important thing to see who succumb to them. While a rookie player’s injury may not be a worrying predicament for big teams, injury of any player who is considered the backbone of the squad is enormously costly.
That was the reason why Adam Wainwright and Albert Pujols’ injuries came to harm the team to a great extent. Nonetheless, the team had to recover from it, and it did with an effective display with the passage of the time.
As the Cardinals recovered from the early upset of injured players and losing six games, it demonstrated relative caution in the days to come. It gradually overcame their rivals, winning games and making a smooth march.
There also came a time when the team was 10 games behind in the Wild Card. It was such a huge disappointment that seemed overwhelming for the team. However, the team that never ceased giving surprises to their fans and critics.
In September, the team showed an unusual performance as it won 20 games in the month to win the National League wild card. They secured the card by clinching the series against the Houston Astros, winning the game by 8-0.
It was indeed not very easy but with the like of Carpenter available to the Cardinals, nothing was impossible for the team. “We had nothing to lose — we were already out of it,” Carpenter said. “People were telling us we were done. We decided to go out and play and not embarrass ourselves and do what we can. We played ourselves back into it.”
Pitching a shutout game, the Cardinals pitcher had 11 strikeouts to his credit, compared to Brett Myers of the Astros who allowed 7 runs in the 5 innings. “It was exciting, there's no doubt about it,” Carpenter added. “The way these guys have played the past month and a half has been amazing, every single night grinding, playing their butts off, not giving up. We continued to give ourselves an opportunity and now we are here.”
With the incredible victory, the race was now on for the playoffs against the Philadelphia Phillies. With the momentum on their side, the Cardinals wanted to continue their impressive run to win the ultimate glory.
Continued in PART 4
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